Democrat Dan Toto is booted from the N.J. Assembly 15th District ballot

Dan Toto talks about the poor living conditions he found while at the County geriatric center. He had told the County it was mismanaged and was unfit for the residents. Photo by Cindy DeSau.

TRENTON -- Secretary of State Kim Guadagno disqualified Dan Toto as a Democratic candidate in the 15th District Assembly race on Wednesday because he failed to get the 100 signatures he needed on his nomination petition.

The state's top election official and lieutenant governor sided with the administrative law judge who had invalidated 17 of the 115 signatures Toto had gathered in a bid to challenge incumbents Reed Gusciora and Bonnie Watson Coleman in the June 7 primary.

The decision caps a week-long legal battle between Toto and Mercer County Democratic chair Liz Muoio, who challenged Toto's candidacy in court.

"We've said from the beginning that he didn't have the requisite number of signatures on his petition and we've been proven correct -- twice by the judge and now by the lieutenant governor," Muoio said.

Toto, a Lawrence resident who works for the New Brunswick Housing and Redevelopment Authority as a compliance officer, vowed to keep fighting even if it means taking his case to the state appellate court.

"As I tell the teens on the baseball team I coach, as long as there's another inning, we don't quit no matter what the score is," Toto said. "We'll explore the legal avenues available to us to see if we get another at-bat."

Registered Republicans, convicted felons ineligible to vote and people who could not be found on voter rolls were among the names stricken from Toto's candidate petition.

After a hearing April 20, Administrative Law Judge Lisa James-Beavers declared 23 signatures invalid and disqualified Toto from the race. Guadagno reviewed the ruling and remanded the matter to the judge for reconsideration of nine questionable signatures.

James-Beavers reinstated six of those names, leaving Toto with 98 signatures, and once again declared him ineligible.

Meanwhile, Toto took some of the rejected names to the county clerk for certification and then dropped them off at the state Board of Election, saying he was confident Guadagno would override James-Beavers and qualify them. Instead, Guadagno upheld the judge's decision and disqualified Toto.